Tuesday, 2 August 2011

A man who claims to have been paid by a Saudi prince for sex will have a decision to deport him reviewed.

The Refugee Review Tribunal has been ordered to reconsider giving the man, who cannot be named, a visa after first rejecting his claims of secret visas, huge payments and months of secret liaisons.

Homosexuality is banned in Saudi Arabia. Men have been jailed, lashed and reportedly executed.

The man applied for a protection visa claiming that because of his sexuality, he feared his family's wrath and persecution in the Middle East.

According to court documents, the man claimed he left his boyfriend in 2008 and travelled to Saudi Arabia because "the Saudi prince liked him very much".

The prince arranged a visa and paid for his travel, where they had sex "in return for financial and material support". But the agreement allegedly went sour and the man was booted from the country after he was sprung having an affair with another man.

After briefly returning to his home country, the man fled to Australia where, according to court documents, he frequented local gay nightclubs.

Evidence tendered on his behalf included a reference from the prince, which his lawyers claimed showed "he loved [the man] so much".

But the Immigration Department found the man's claims to fear persecution in his home country were undermined by inconsistencies in his evidence about his employment, his first homosexual relationship, and his circumstances immediately before his travel to Saudi Arabia.

The tribunal also doubted the man's allegations, refusing to accept he "was in a homosexual relationship with the prince or one of his friends".

According to court documents, the tribunal even doubted the man was gay.

But the Federal Magistrates' Court ruled the tribunal erred in its decision to deny the man a visa because it failed to raise its doubts about his sexuality and his alleged affair with the prince during their questioning.